12.12.2022 LISTEN
If all goes well as is expected, the whistleblowing and whistleblower protection draft bill which sprung from a five-day stakeholders’ retreat on the whistleblowing policy organized by the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning in May 2021 in Keffi, Nasarawa State, would be considered this month at a Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting and then transmitted as an executive bill to the National Assembly for passage into law.
Many stakeholders, local and foreign, including citizens who are enthusiastic about the efficacy of whistleblowing as an anti-corruption instrument, are agreed that in addition to mustering the political will for action against corruption, Nigeria is long overdue for a stand-alone legislation that offers robust protection for whistleblowers. The enactment of the law would put Nigeria in the same progressive basket with African countries like Ghana, South Africa and Uganda, which already have whistleblower protection legislations as a means of achieving accountability and good governance.
As Nigerians anxiously look forward to this important law and joining the league of countries hungry for accountability, it is apt to state that much as whistleblowing is sorely needed to curb corruption in all sectors of the Nigerian polity, nowhere is the urgency to have it as a reporting mechanism more biting than in the health sector which happens to be clearly more susceptible to corruption for a variety of reasons related...
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has moved to reassure parents and learners that public schools will remain open at the end of April, dismissing widespread social media claims of a shutdown ...